DCU Comic Book Reviews

INFINITY INC. #9

The Bogeyman, Part Two: Real Women, Imaginary Men

July 2008

Written by Peter Milligan

Pencils by Pete Woods

Inks by Pete Woods

Cover by Pete Woods

Synopsis

 While the manifestations of Gerome McKenna argue who is the real one, Mercy and Erik/Erika battle the Bogeyman, who is able to get away.  Mercy follows the creature.  Billy returns home to find his mom concerned for the girl the Bogeyman attacked.  Meanwhile, Mercy is returning to the team when she encounters a posse of townsfolk looking for the Bogeyman.  The posse stops her and want to know what she is doing.  She beats them up.  Later, Mercy informs the team of what se learned.  The info is passed along to John Henry Irons, who tells Infinity Inc. that Billy’s father was a murderer once known as the bogeyman.  Now, Irons thinks Billy is the Bogeyman.  Elsewhere, the local cops bust down Billy’s door to arrest him.  Infinity Inc. gets there just as the officers remove Billy from the house.  Natasha tries to tell the team to stay out of it, but Lucia and Erik/Erika don’t listen as the charge ahead.... 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

There are two parts to this overarching story.  One is the search for members of Luthor’s Everyman Project.  The other is the psychological battle that each of the teammates is fighting within themselves.  I do not think the two are co-existing well with each other.  Up until now, this series was les about external conflict then about internal conflict.  It wouldn’t surprise if Milligan was asked to change his approach because the book’s sales levels are so low.  Yet, the change in style has created a schizophrenic story.  Villains have been introduced to combat Infinity Inc., but Dr. Fogel is ill-defined and the townspeople seem to be caricatures just to provide conflict in this issue.  As a result, Billy and the Bogeyman, whether it is him or his father, lacks depth to be the center of story.  On top of this, the stuff with Gerome seems to be sitting outside of the main plot, as if Milligan needed to add a few pages to fill up the entire issue.  And Lucia’s powers still has not been explained.  Overall, it just seems to me that if one aspect of the plot had been the focus, the issue might have been less cluttered. 

It is sad to realize the character that is the most interesting, and the character that seems to have become the center of the book, is the one who is not even tied to Luthor’s program:  Mercy.  At this point of the book, Erik/Erika has become a single note character, Gerome’s mini-mes were never interesting, Lucia is still ill-defined, and Natasha is the de facto normal person (for whatever that is worth in this book).  So, that leaves Mercy.  First the fight, then the info hunt, followed by the second fight, and Mercy has taken center stage. 

What exactly happened when Lucia unfurled her wings?  Did the ground shake, causing the officers to fall or did the wind from the wings push the officers backwards.  The art is not quite clear on that point.